Curators of the Buddha

Lopez, Donald S.

Curators of the Buddha is the first critical history of the study of Buddhism in the West and the first work to bring the insights of colonial and postcolonial cultural studies to bear on this field. After an overview of the origins of Buddhist studies in the early nineteenth century, the essays focus on important "curators of the Buddha" such as Aurel Stein, D.T. Suzuki, and Carl Jung, who, as they created and maintained the discipline, played a significant role in disseminating knowledge about Buddhism in the West. The essays bring to life many of the important but unexamined social, political, and cultural conditions that have shaped the course of Buddhist studies for more than a century - and have frequently determined the understanding of a complex set of traditions. Contributors Charles Hallisey, Gustavo Benavides, Stanley Abe, Luis Gomez, Robert Sharf, and Donald Lopez...

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